Fees make budget airlines pricier than full-service

Ryanair has introduced yet another charge, this time a £2 (€2.30) fee that, it alleges, will contribute to compensation it has paid for flight delays and cancellations. It could earn an additional €170 million a year with this new fee, which is actually double what the airline paid out for claims resulting from the ash cloud, snow, strikes and other disruptions in 2010. Even before the new fee is added, Ryanair makes around €500 million a year in online check-in fees, at least €400 million in credit and debit card charges and €365 million in baggage charges.Industry insiders comment that the new charge will add to passengers’ confusion. “It’s a way of marketing the fare to make it more attractive to customers,” says one expert. The multiple fees charged by low-cost airlines can make them more expensive than full-service airlines. The Telegraph presents a table comparing costs for a family of four travelling from London to Madrid in August, showing that the final fare after fees are added to the headline fare reach £563.92 for Ryanair, £387.17 for easyJet and £479.20 for British Airways.The Telegraph